Losses are starting to add up for Jay Z’s Tidal
Rapper and producer Jay Z controls a business empire, but so far his success is not extending to Tidal, the music-streaming service he bought into last year.
Since Jay Z bought in with a group of investors, losses are mounting. Aspiro, the Swedishbased holding company that controls Tidal, is burning through cash amid intense competition in the genre, The Wall Street
Journal reports. Aspiro had a loss of $28 million last year, almost triple the loss recorded in 2014. Tidal has endured competition from a variety of sources, from Spotify and Apple to YouTube. For the moment, Tidal is the dark spot among Jay Z’s many businesses in the United States.
A Tidal spokesman had no comment.
Jay Z announced in February 2015 his Carter Enterprises had bid $56 million for Aspiro. He celebrated with a launch party in New York that was stocked with A-list celebrities, starting with wife Beyonce. At the time, Aspiro appeared to be on a roll, boasting it was available in 31 countries.
But Jay Z filed suit against Aspiro in March seeking what Swedish media said was about $15 million. At the time, the issue was the number of subscribers. “It became clear after taking control of Tidal and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the previous owners.”